Adamawa: Matters Arising -By Samuel David

It is about fifteen months since Admiral Murtala Nyako was impeached as Adamawa State governor under very questionable circumstances masterminded by some Adamawa ‘elites’ in Abuja and their co-conspirators in the Adamawa State House of Assembly.

The build up to this phenomenon had seen some of the crudest actions that could be attributed to a democracy (even in some of the least developed Banana Republics in the world) bordering on insanity unfolding.

More appalling are recent revelations that the impeachement of Nyako was achieved using mind boggling sums of money which people of Adamawa have always suspected.

Just as importantly, some of the highest figures in the land have been linked to the planning and execution of the plot. Nyako who had to flee the country to avoid being tried on trumped up charges of treasonable felony is now back as a national hero of sort having been rightfully adjudged as the sacrificial lamb for the emergence of this government.

Not so for his traducers including the former President Jonathan who with several of his associates are battling to extricate from the very many daunting circumstances with some already in the dragnet of foreign law enforcement agents and many more poised to follow.

It is quite noteworthy that a Federal High Court in Adamawa had adjudged his impeachment as ultra vires but failed to set it aside citing multiplicity of cases filed on the same matter and throwing it on grounds of that being an abuse of court process.

Two things however baffle many minds about this judgement. The first is whether the lawyers for the defendant pleaded this multiplicity of cases filed in their pleadings or the judge had additional information personally not available to generality of the court which would ordinarily be inadmissible as part of the case. Many of them also wondered why the judge did not consolidate the various suits and try them as one rather than throwing out the main suit.

Happily, the matter is now in the Appeal Court and justice may yet soon be obtained by Nyako as the judiciary strives to continue to uphold its cherished role as the last hope of the common and not so common man in Nigeria.

However, for every practical purpose, it is our candid opinion that the circumstances surrounding the impeachment of Admiral Murtala Nyako represents a very grave threat to not only the survival of democracy in Nigeria but to its very nationhood itself and should be thoroughly revisited outside the realm of civil legal processes and those found wanting in that regard should be brought to justice.

It is imperative therefore that President Buhari should order a judicial enquiry into the conduct of that impeachment process against Nyako as the facts that have been emerging place the actions of the prime movers and their cohorts in the realm of treasonable felony and high profile corruption which must be treated side by side with the several other cases of high profile corruption which the perpetrators are already being prosecuted or poised to be arraigned.

Indeed, this reminds us that at the height of the unfortunate affair an Adamawa State-based human rights activist had sought to cause the then speaker of House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, now governor of Sokoto State to close down the Adamawa State House of Assembly and take over its injunctions citing widespread allegations of bribery to facilitate the impeachment process against Nyako. The petitioner had also sought the investigation and impeachment/ prosecution of the suspected financier, a south south governor whose tenure ended recently.

By and large however, the most important issue today is that Nyako has been truly vindicated as there is widespread nostalgia in the state today for a return to the “Nyako days” by the ordinary man on the street.

Unknown to many perhaps, this was the bye product of a well thought out strategic plan aimed at galvanising her citizens out of their poverty-induced stupor into renewed self esteem and a drive for self reliance.

Those populist programmes included his special programme which saw thousands of our youths and other vulnerable persons paid monthly allowances of N10,000 including a savings component for a period of six months in order to accumulate capital to start small businesses.

–David wrote in from Yola